"Killer App" Will Drive Widespread Mobile Payments Adoption

A survey of mobile industry insiders by SAP also reveals that most believe banks should be creating and running mobile payments networks.

All it will take is the creation of one "killer app" to propel widespread adoption of mobile payments, according to a survey conducted by SAP. The survey polled mobile operators, fixed telecommunication providers, over-the-top (OTT) players and other global mobile industry executives on issues surrounding Big Data, mobile commerce and LTE.

According to the survey, apps around making payments on prepaid mobile phones and retail payments were considered the top two most likely mobile payments catalysts. When it comes to who should be creating and running mobile payment networks, those polled said that banks (26 percent) were the top choice, followed by existing online payment providers such as PayPal and iTunes (25 percent), a consortium of operators (19 percent), credit card schemes (17 percent) and social networks (17 percent).

Regarding payments security, the survey found most respondents still said credit cards (at 52 percent) was the most secure payments method, with mobile payments (20 percent) and NFC (15 percent) trailing behind.

In terms of data and analytics, the survey found that real-time offers (36 percent) and better customer segmentation (27 percent) are expected to drive the most value from big data in 2014. The key challenges that are preventing operators and enterprises from fully unlocking the business potential of big data are security and privacy concerns (38 percent) and lack of big data expertise (28 percent).

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio

I really think we're going to see mobile payments evolve on a brand-to-brand basis, as essentially a shortcut for counter payments. After all, if you encourage people to pay via your mobile app only, they are going to naturally choose your brand more often.